Buyer beware-Infiniti South Bay + interior mods

[akliquid]

I finally had time to put on my wheelskin steering wheel cover, so I thought I would put up some pics.

For pics only, scroll down to bottom.

This is my second M45. I have an 04 M45 in midnight blue/willow interior. My first was an 03 M45 that was black on black. Like some of you, I researched for months figuring out what car I wanted. I narrowed it down to the Infiniti G35 coupe. This was last year and the new one had not come out yet. I went to Infinti South Bay in Torrance CA to look for a used one. But as soon as I saw the Black M45 it was game over. This car looked tough. Kind of like a four door version of the old Skyline GT-R. The car was Certified Pre-Owned and had a clean Carfax. Loved the car at first. Two days after I got it home, VDC, SLIP, and SERVICE ENGINE SOON lights all come on, and car stalls out on me while I'm driving. Car was at the dealership for a week. It would take too long to write out all the BS that I went through but briefly,

Car broke down 4 times and needed to be towed each time.Ran out of gas due to faulty gas gauge.Brake rotors refinished due to extreme steering wheel shimmy at speed.

Had to call Infiniti Corporate, but they were no help because all Infiniti dealerships are independent, so told to resolve with dealership. Later find out the car was in a collision that involved frame damage.The collision repair was even done at the main repair facility for Infiniti South Bay. But no mention of anything on CARFAX.But the worst thing was that no one really cared at this dealership. I was told on three different occasions that I would be called at a certain day and time, but never called. The general manager whose initials are TZ, was especially, plane and simply, a jerk. I had the car for 4 months and it was in one of 3 dealerships for about 2 of them. Right before they found out it had been in an accident, TZ's best offer was to make me pay an extra $2000 (because tax would not be returned) to get out of my car and into another 03 M45 they had on the lot. The final insult was that the day TZ was supposed to give me my money back, he decided to not come in. He didn't even have the courtesy to have the check ready for me. I had to wait for some other guy to call TZ to see WTF I was talking about. This experience was the worst I have ever had or even heard of from an Infiniti dealership. And how could a car with so many problems be Certified? It is really hard to believe that there were so many problems, incompetence, and an utter lack of good service and attention to detail from a supposed luxury automobile dealership. There are plenty of other very good dealerships and I will never go back there for any reason.I know there are many looking for these cars so just in case this vehicle is out there, it's a Black/Black 03 M45 VIN# ends in 000563. In April it had 33,000 miles.

But even after all that, I went and bought another one from a private lot in Orange County. My wife and family told me I was crazy for buying the same car, but only those on this website might understand. Since I have owned both an 03 and an 04, I prefer the 04. The 03 didn't have NAV or heated seats. The 04 does plus has the CD changer in the center. Much better. Also has a chrome clock that matches my MOMO shift knob. This car is great to look at and fun to drive. Sorry for the long write up. Here's some pics of my M45.

- Wheelskins steering wheel cover

[img]http://akliquid.myphotoalbum.c...wheel[/img]

- Interior with MOMO shift knob

[img] http://akliquid.myphotoalbum.c...g_nat [/img]

- 25 SMT LED blue dome lights

[img] http://akliquid.myphotoalbum.c...domes [/img]

- Blue interior

[img] http://akliquid.myphotoalbum.c...erior [/img]

- headlights

[img] http://akliquid.myphotoalbum.c...heads [/img]

[img] http://akliquid.myphotoalbum.c...heads [/img]

Mods so far: and yes I know I went a little nuts on the blue theme,

-Blue corner bulbs-8000K headlights-8000K HID foglights-Dimpled and slotted rotors-35% Formula One Ceramic window tint-MOMO Sphere shift knob-Wheelskins steering cover with orange thread-Blue LED interior

AK


Modified by akliquid at 10:01 AM 5/2/2008

[M45-Zero260]

akliquid,

Car looks awesome! I love the headlight / fog light combo. The fog lights on my car look so dim in comparison to the HID, that I don't ever have them on anymore until I get around to giving them a mod.

Thank you for posting the info on that dealership, and more importantly, the last six of the VIN. I think it's good to post your experiences at your dealer, whether good or bad. We live in an age where word of mouth is a click of the mouse. I think that Infiniti dealerships need to worry more about keeping a good reputation because of this.

Interesting mod on the dome lights! I never would have thought blue LED's would look good, but I kind of like the look of it!

[DELUNASC]

akliquid, Your car looks great. How complicated was the fog light conversion? Where did you purchase? How much?. Where did you find the dome lights?

Not to steal your style, but I would like the same upgrades. Thanks in advance for any info.

CD

[akliquid]

The two mods I enjoy the most on a daily basis are the shift knob and the domes.They have the domes on a site called autolumination. They are the 25 SMT LED array in white, blue and red. The cool thing is the installation. If you take the clear plastic off the domes, you need to take off the 2 screws on each side to take off the black metal piece. I measured the distance from the screws and it was roughly 38mm. So this led plate attaches to a Ba9s bulb that fits directly to the standard socket. Then you just place the plate in between the screw holes and just use the screws to hold it in place.Takes a little bit of adjusting to get them straight, but it about 15 minutes for the first side, then 5 minutes for the other.No modification needed. It fits almost perfectly just with the screws. The LED is 38mm x 38mm x 4mm. It should be the same for 03, but just take it off and check measurement and bulb type just to make sure.

When ordering, make sure the end connection is for Ba9s.Here's a link, it's a like the 6th one down.http://autolumination.com/otherleds.htm

The foglights I had my brother install them. He had to do some custom work and mounted the ballast on top of the foglight housing. I couldn't tell you what he did exactly, but someone who has done HID installs before should be able to take care of it. I got them off a guy on Craig's List for about $150. But I would get another brand because the color is not the same from one side to the other. I believe any HID H3 set will do. I actually went through 2 sets of non-HID 8000K bulbs to try to just match the color. But color of the light output was no better than 4300K. I bought both sets off ebay for about $25 each. Totally worthless. No problem if you do the same mods, just glad people are cool with what I did.I have a lot of other things I would like to do. It would be cool to see what people come up with knowing there are absolutely no parts for our cars.


Modified by akliquid at 6:11 PM 1/21/2008

[GJEMD]

Most of the time a car titled to a dealership even a lease will have body repair at the dealer and NEVER show up on CARFAX. Its illegal but it happens all the time.

[akliquid]

I think what is most disturbing for me is that this car was CERTIFIED by this dealership. Not only that it had collision frame damage, but all the other problems that I experienced with the vehicle- gas gauge, warped rotors, and so on. I have purchased Cerified pre-owned vehicles from BMW and Lexus in the past, and they have been outstanding cars. This dealership claimed that the vehicle had gone through something like a 140 point inspection process, but I believe that it was far less.